STATE FLOWER
Virginia's State Flower: Flowering Dogwood
Virginia is one of the few states whose flower and tree are one and the same — the flowering dogwood holds both titles.
A Woodland Native, Twice Honored
The flowering dogwood's showy white, pink, or yellow "petals" are actually bracts — modified leaves that mimic petals surrounding the tree's true, tiny flowers. It grows wild across Virginia's woodlands and is equally common as a cultivated ornamental, prized for both spring blooms and its red foliage and fruit come autumn.
QUICK FACT
While its flowers are prized ornamentally, dogwood berries are toxic to humans, though many birds rely on them as a food source.
